the Week of Proper 28 / Ordinary 33
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Bible Dictionaries
Shechem
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or In St. Stephen’s address we read that Jacob and the fathers were carried over unto Shechem and laid in the sepulchre that Abraham bought of the sons of Hamor in Shechem (Acts 7:16). There is here a combining of two separate traditions. Jacob was buried at Machpelah (Genesis 50:13), which Abraham bought from the sons of Heth (23). Jacob himself bought ground from the children of Hamor, and in it Joseph was buried (Joshua 24:32). This ground was in Shechem. Here Jacob established his residence for some time, and his people entered into the closest relations with the natives. A well, said to have been dug by his orders, was in existence in Christ’s day, and here at Jacob’s well our Lord had His famous interview with the Samaritan woman (John 4). Shechem became famous as a Levite city, and a city of refuge, and still later as the capital of the ten tribes under Jeroboam. It became a city of the Samaritans. Its situation was between Mount Gerizim and Mount Ebal, and it lay on the Roman road from Jerusalem to Galilee.
Literature.-C. W. Wilson, article ‘Shechem,’ in Hasting's Dictionary of the Bible (5 vols) ; G. A. Smith, Historical Geography of the Holy Land (G. A. Smith) , 1900, pp. 120, 332; R. J. Knowling, Expositor’s Greek Testament , ‘Acts,’ 1900, ad loc.
J. W. Duncan.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Shechem'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/s/shechem.html. 1906-1918.
